Thinking Like A CEO: 5 Steps to Ensure Your Success

Managing the multiple priorities of different clients doesn’t have to be draining. Approaching your business and thinking like a CEO helps you manage your energy, organize your time and make a profit. Here are five tips to get you started:

1. Think like a CEO: A CEO manages multiple priorities, Sales, Marketing, Fulfillment, Customer Service and Budgeting. It is important to schedule time and activities each week to each of the ‘departments’ you manage to grow your successful business.

2. Manage Expectations: Verbal conversations disappear over time, so it is important you follow the number 1 rule of business, Get It In Writing. How are you and your client going to manage their success? Ask your client and potential clients to provide their top three priorities in writing, in an email. It will give you a solid foundation to know if the client’s goal are realistic and achievable. If they are not it is time to renegotiate. If you can’t renegotiate, respectfully decline because when someone doesn’t know or understand what they want, you can’t make them happy.

3. Measure Everything: Developing a business requires time creating relationships. Relationships take time to develop. In any business, yours or your clients, getting sales is really the only goal. So how do you measure your contribution to your clients’ bottom line? Set baselines when you begin working (or even once you have started, it’s never to late). Ask your client to give you the number of visitors to their website and their website sales amount prior to your time on the job. Google analytics is an amazing tool and 1ShoppingCart.com1shoppingcart.com has a feature known as adtracker. Adtracker tells you how many people clicked on a link, took an action and made a purchase. Come to an agreement on what is your job and what is your client’s responsibility. How will you measure your success with your client?

For example, increasing visits to a website maybe your responsibility, but sales would be the client’s. As they say, you can bring a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. You cannot make people buy.

4. Have a Backup Plan: Every CEO knows that even with the best laid plans, life happens. You need to have a backup plan because everything in life takes longer than we expect. A Project Manager on a construction job breaks down the big job of building a building into tasks. Some are mission critical to getting the building completed on time and within budget. When you and your client meet to set goals, make sure you understand what is mission critical to your client. If your client’s goal is increasing the number of fans on social media, do everything you can, and ask for a small ad budget in advance of needing it. Put it in an escrow account so you have control over it. If your client is an author have a few books on hand to create a give-away. Think 10 steps ahead of your goal and you’ll never have to play catch-up.

5. Exceed expectations and go the extra mile: A CEO’s primary responsibility is to keep the company running. That means always creating income opportunities. If you spend all your time on serving your customers and no time on cultivating new customers, you may end up with a cash flow crunch. I am a firm believer in Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. Hill gives us 6 steps to turn desires into gold and the number one goal is create a definite goal and number 2 is what are you going to give in return? From day one (or today) create a plan to exceed your client’s expectations. If your client is an expert, spend some time searching for possible partners for joint ventures. When you help your client reach his or her goals, you will reach yours. Remember above all, keep a positive attitude towards those you work with. What you think and speak about a client, even to yourself, effects everything you do, so always sing their praises and you will be pleasantly surprised at the outcome.

Good luck on all your adventures. If you have a question about your business that would help others, post a comment and I’ll post a reply. If your question is more private, send me an email at maureen(at)maureenocrean.com and we can set up a time to talk.

About Maureen O'Crean

Harvard educated Sociologist Maureen O'Crean, M.B.A., is committed to helping people to live their dreams. With over 20 years of results to her credit, Maureen has generated and raised millions in the non-profit and public sectors. An expert in Internet marketing and women's issues, Maureen has her hand on the pulse of business owners, licensed professionals and aspiring authors. Whether navigating between careers or creating a legacy, Maureen works with entrepreneurs to express their unique voice in the world.